Yesterday, Platon Lebedev’s lawyers appealed against Judge Comissarov’s decision to refuse his claim for compensation for moral damages due to his illegal arrest (extension of his imprisonment term from August 17th to November 17th 2010).

Lebedev’s lawyers Yelena Lipster and Aleksey Miroshnichenko commented:
The illegal and immoral decision of Judge Comissarov has already been commented on and discussed in great detail. There is nothing more to add, this official document (appeal) draws a line under everything expressed and written on this issue. We would like to thank everyone concerned.

Summary of the appeal letter:

The Court decision against which Platon Lebedev and his attorneys are appealing denied Lebedev’s claims for compensation of moral damages, caused by the illegal court decisions made earlier. These decisions include illegal imprisonment of Platon Lebedev in the period from 17th of August to 17th of November 2010.

Platon Lebedev and his attorneys believe that the decisions were illegal and unreasonable as the circumstances relevant to the case were not properly identified and substantive and procedural laws were applied incorrectly (paragraphs 1, 3 and 4 of part 1 of Article 330 of CCP of Russian Federation).

Lawyers of Platon Lebedev based their opinion and their demand to cancel the decision on the following:
The decision being a chaotic collection of a certain interpretation of the facts, legal quotes, demagogic discussions and even false statements, most of which are not relevant to the issues in question and demonstrate the attempt to confuse a simple case.

The “smokescreen” which covers the plainly contrived, thoroughly unsubstantial conclusion of the court, which denies moral damages to Platon Lebedev by stating that illegal court decisions and his illegal imprisonment is not confirmed “documentally”.

On the illegality of the court’s conclusions, Lebedev’s lawyers stated:

We are facing misapplication of the law, the court ignored the core meaning of Lebedev’s appeal and misused its authority while considering the appeal. There are specific criteria which should have been used in order to establish a fair decision; however the meaning and content of these were changed. (section 1, article 1070 and article 1100 of the Civil Code of Russian Federation).

Regarding the “lack of proof” of moral damages to Lebedev, his lawyers have cited the following:

Statements by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (15th April
2011) and The European Court of Human Rights (25th October 2007) which identified violations to Platon Lebedev’s basic rights made by the courts of Moscow.

Lebedev’s illegal arrest consists of two components: both the court’s illegal judgement and further illegal imprisonment on the basis of that judgement. Each of these components causes moral damages to the victim.

On the basis of Article 1070 of CC of the Russian Federation and Paragraph 2 of Article 328 of CCP of the Russian Federation, Lebedev’s lawyers have demanded the court’s decision be overturned and a new decision to be made granting Platon Lebedev moral damages, paid by the Treasury amounting to 183,981.6 roubles.

The Treasury can charge this amount, based on paragraph 3 article 1081 of CC of the Russian Federation, back to the judges who performed intentionally illegal judicial acts, regarding the extension of Platon Lebedev’s imprisonment term.